The law covers any scheme to defraud that is occurring on or after October 12, 1984. The statutory language is modeled directly on the mail fraud statute. The Department of Justice asked for the new law to correct many deficiencies in current banking laws, including their limitation to specific types of people, their differing interpretations by different appellate courts, and the inability of existing laws to deal with check kiting cases. The law should be viewed as a supplement rather than a substitute for existing criminal provisions. The choice of offenses to be charged should be made on the basis of the facts of the individual case. Prosecutions may be considered analogous to those under the mail fraud statute.